Sheffield Shield: Difference between revisions

Sheffield Shield

Current season, competition or edition: Pura Cup season 2007-08
File:Pura Cup logo.jpg
Sport	Cricket
Founded	1892
No. of teams	6
Country	Australia
Most recent champion(s)	Tasmania

The Pura Cup (formerly known as the Sheffield Shield) is the domestic first class cricket competition in Australia. Each of the six state teams play in a round-robin series of home and away 4-day matches against every other team. Teams are awarded points based on the results of the match, and after each pair of teams have played each other twice, the two highest ranked teams play a 5-day final. A separate limited overs competition known as the Ford Ranger Cup runs concurrently.

In 1891-92 the Earl of Sheffield was in Australia as the promoter of the English team led by W. G. Grace. The tour included three Tests played in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide.

At the conclusion of the tour, Sheffield donated £150 to the New South Wales Cricket Association to fund a trophy for an annual tournament of intercolonial cricket in Australia. The three colonies of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia were already regularly playing ad-hoc matches which were very popular.

The new tournament commenced in the summer of 1892 with the three colonies playing for a silver shield named after its benefactor.

In 1999, the Australian Cricket Board (now Cricket Australia) announced a 4 year sponsorship deal which included renaming the Sheffield Shield to the Pura Milk Cup, then to the Pura Cup the following season. Pura is a brand name of National Foods a wholly owned subsidiary of the Philippines based San Miguel Corporation.

Although the competition had been running with losses of several million dollars per annum, cricket traditionalists protested strongly, arguing against the encroaching wave of commercialism damaging the competition that had been running for over 100 years. Many cricket lovers still refer to the competition as the "Shield" either as force of habit, or as a subtle protest.

The sponsorship increased total annual prize money to A$220,000, with the winners receiving A$75,000 and the runners up A$45,000.

See: Cricinfo article

Template:Australian domestic cricket Labelled Map

• Wins up to and including 2006-07 season.

• Home grounds are the main venues used for home games by each team; other venues in the home state of each team are also regularly used.

A number of different systems have been used over the years. Currently, points are awarded for each match during the home and away season, with the top two teams playing in the final. The team with the most points hosts the final on their home ground and only needs to draw that match to win the title.

Prior to the introduction of a Final in 1982/83, the team with most points after the home and away rounds was declared the winner.

The Player of the Year award is announced at the end of each season^[1]. Since it's inception in 1976 it has been awarded to the player or players who are considered to have returned consistently magnificent performances by a panel of judges. Victorian and South Australian batsman Matthew Elliott has won the award the most times, being awarded Player of the Year on 3 separate occasions.

• 1892/93 - Competition commences by formalising the Intercolonial matches regularly played between Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales
• 1982/83 - Final introduced. Tasmania finally entered the competition after many years of exclusion on the grounds that the contest was between the mainland states only.

Rank	Team	Entered	Matches	Won	Lost	Drawn	Tied	% Won
1	New South Wales	1892-93	741	317	209	214	1	60.25
2	Victoria	1892-93	733	275	215	242	1	56.11
3	Western Australia	1947-48	507	175	149	183	0	54.01
4	Queensland	1926-27	625	185	213	226	1	46.49
5	South Australia	1892-93	729	206	327	195	1	38.67
6	Tasmania	1982-1983	279	58	103	118	0	36.02
Win percentage excludes drawn matches. Source: [3]. Last updated: 1 June 2007.

Rank	Total	Team	Opponent	Venue	Season
1	1107	Victoria	New South Wales	Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne	1926-27
2	1059	Victoria	Tasmania	Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne	1922-23
3	918	New South Wales	South Australia	Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney	1900-01
4	900-6d	Queensland	Victoria	Brisbane Cricket Ground, Brisbane	2005-06
5	839	New South Wales	Tasmania	Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney	1898-99
Source: [4]. Last updated: 31 May 2007.

Rank	Total	Team	Opponent	Venue	Season
1	27	South Australia	New South Wales	Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney	1955-56
2	29	South Australia	New South Wales	Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney	2004-05
3	31	Victoria	New South Wales	Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney	1906-07
4	35	Victoria	New South Wales	Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney	1926-27
5	41	Western Australia	South Australia	Adelaide Oval, Adelaide	1989-90
Source: [5]. Last updated: 31 May 2007.

• Intercolonial cricket in Australia
• Ford Ranger Cup
• KFC Twenty20 Big Bash
• Pura Cup season 2007-08

Template:Australian first class cricket teams

• http://members.optusnet.com.au/~anmarks/history.htm
• Points system

• The History of the Sheffield Shield, Chris Harte
• A Century of Summers: 100 years of Sheffield Shield cricket, Geoff Armstrong